New Pills Gain In Cancer Fight, Till Cost Gets In Way

Feb. 26--For a decade, Jim Holt had beaten back multiple myeloma using every weapon in the arsenal:

Surgery to remove a baseball-size tumor from his head. A stem cell transplant at Duke University. Chemotherapy, multiple times.

When lab work showed the blood cancer's levels creeping up again in 2008, his doctor suggested a new oral chemotherapy drug called Revlimid.

The cost was a jaw-dropper: $8,000 a month.

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Kruger said that particularly during the past five years, research has led to oral meds that stem cancer growth. They're turning cancers into chronic diseases that can be managed for years through medication.

If more patients could afford the oral meds, Kruger said, it would reduce hospital costs as well as the amount of time patients lose from work. He said each of the group's 12 practices has one employee whose sole job is to link patients who can't afford their oral meds with organizations that can help them.

Virginia's bill, if passed and signed by the governor, would provide more coverage for oral meds through private insurance plans and state health insurance. Some states have passed stronger legislation that require the coverage to be equal, while Virginia's bill would simply bring coverage of oral meds more in line with that of IV chemo.

Parity bills are important to people with multiple myeloma because they often use several methods to combat it, according to Meghan Buzby, who works for theInternational Myeloma Foundation.

In some cases, IV chemo will work for a while but then stops being effective. At that point, an oral medication is usually critical in fighting the cancer.

"When one method stops working, they need to go back into the toolbox," Buzby said.